The Way and the Power

The Way and the Power

Good Morning Friends,

As a small boy I loved throwing flat stones into water at Lake Isaak Walton in Southern Illinois to make splashes or to see how many times I could make them skip. In Florida on the Gulf Beaches I did the same with flat shells weathered by storms. They balanced nicely in the palm…smooth to the touch. Even the smallest shells would create visible ripples that radiated outward to be consumed by waves. I imagined the ripple going on forever but had to wonder if they made much of an impact. When in Israel, I skipped flat rocks at the Sea of Galilee and wondered about Jesus skipping across the water to the amazement of the disciples. This year millions of Christian pilgrims will go to Israel to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, but few will try to do it on the Sea of Galilee. Still there is a lasting ripple effect to walking with Jesus in the deep water of life. It is here we can discover, below the surface, a faith that links our believing to small acts of kindness, and love to something beyond time. I believe these signs of faith and love radiate from family, community, our nation and the world to even nature as they carry the creative life of Christ outward bringing not just balance but unity…an expansion of grace. This idea of filling and expanding as a breath is, I think, the essence of the Hebrew concept of creation. Sure the expansion of some of our actions appear to dissipate almost immediately but some cut across time and space, people and place as a witness to The Way and the Power.

Scripture: Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.

Psalms 119:105 (NIV)

Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. And early in the morning he came walking towards them on the lake.

Matthew 14:22-25 (NRSV)

Jesus said, “I assure you that everybody who gives even a cup of cold water to these little ones because they are my disciples will certainly be rewarded.”

Matthew 10:42 (CEB)

“I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one,
I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

John 17:20–23 (NRSV)

Quotes: “If there is another world, he lives in bliss. If there is none, he made the best of this.”

Robert Burns

“There is so much good in the worst of us, 
And so much bad in the best of us, 
That it little behooves any of us
To talk about the rest of us.”

This unknown quote reminds me of YinYang. It is credited to about 50 people from Abraham Lincoln to Robert Burns. If you know who really first said it let me know.

Message: There is a cognitive disparity between science’s reason and religion’s values view of truth that can lead to a crisis of faith if not resolved. Oh it is not that simple really. But at least part of the answer might just be found at the core of the various religions of the world and their cultures and the isms we would make into religions. They are so different but do perhaps have a common thread beneath the surface of their alien traditions. Some are focused on the inner self, some the social aspects of faith and others on nature and destiny. But beneath the surface of them all is a human need that is universal. At least some of us it is manifested in a need to not be trapped on the boat when Jesus is walking on the water. Friends, when Jesus prayed that we be one I believe he was hoping in the possibility of this common reality so we might overcome our differences…we might heal the wounded nature of our Christian walk in the institutional church. When I travel to the East I have experienced people there that value different religions and they find no problem mixing them up. There religions are not so much in competition as they are a complement in collaboration together to help people through life’s various challenges. That is not the way here in the West. Here we are like tribes fighting and I wonder if we have missed something in our denominationalism. Is this really attractive? Perhaps there is a value to religion that is out of the boat and that does not focus on division, a razor cut separation of who is in and who is out. This separation attitude does have a way of suffocating the human spirit and starving our very souls. Some religious leaders do tend to contend for the future of our minds, our sense of reality, dragging truth and meaning below the surface. There is a battle here, for we do crave so much more than simple everyday experience limited exclusively to the material world. The water though seems so dangerous, the thoughts here so fleeting…death and life so intertwined. The breath, the invisible/ physical thing of life is so hard to catch. Thankfully God is the perfect poet. He is constantly weaving words and sinew into this reality we call life. Breathing life into us in ways that are supernatural. Even in our deep sleep we discover a glimpse …a dream…a thought to write down before it too is consumed by the waves of the world. Still we hope that maybe, just maybe, if we keep skipping stones and our children’s children’s children’s children follow suit that eventually some will be able to walk on them.

Pray the diverse denominations and religions of the world walk toward the unity desired by Christ. Pray we have greater empathy for others so we might understand better the expanding grace of Christ. Pray we appreciate the perspectives of others. Pray we do not have a misplaced pursuit of fulfillment through technology and consumerism alone. Pray we realize that it is ok for a time to sail on a metaphorical boat with deck planks of science…a sail called higher education, a tiller of the media, and the law that serves as our keel but it is not ok to be trapped there by those who substitute science for religion. Pray we realize that in the total scheme of things we must deal with nature and each other. Pray that out of the boat we discover the bliss of Christ…the satisfaction of salvation…the wisdom and wonder of faith. Pray our acts of love and kindness like a rock thrown in a lake, create a rippling wave that keeps expanding. Pray we realize that we are spiritual beings…waves not just particles of matter.

Blessings,

John Lawson